Italian GP 1961
Italian GP, 1961
The penultimate race of the 1961 World Championship was to be a showdown between the Ferrari drivers. The team had already won the Constructors' title so it was a straight fight between Wolfgang Von Trips and Phil Hill for the Drivers' title although Moss still had a mathematical chance of victory if he won both races. The advantage lay with Phil Hill who had 38 points to Wolfgang Von Trips's 33. The Ferrari team had a new recruit at Monza, Ricardo Rodriguez taking over the team's fourth car while Giancarlo Baghetti reappeared in a private Ferrari. Once again Jack Brabham was the only driver with the new Climax V8 engine. Stirling Moss ran his usual Lotus 18 but was not happy with it and Innes Ireland let him have his factory Lotus 21. The organizers decided to use the combined oval/road course again and the Ferraris were impressive. Von Trips was on pole with Rodriguez second (becoming the youngest driver ever to start a World Championship Grand Prix) ahead of Ginther and P Hill with Graham Hill's BRM sharing the third row with Baghetti. At the start P Hill and Ginther managed to get into first and second places followed by Rodriguez, the fast-starting Jim Clark and Von Trips. Approaching the Parabolica the two cars collided. Clark crashed without injury but the Ferrari hit a spectator fence and was tossed into a roll. Von Trips was thrown from the car and was killed along with 14 spectators. The race organizers decided not to stop the race and the Ferrari team put on a display until Rodriguez, Baghetti and Ginther all stopped with mechanical trouble. This left Hill to win. Of the rest, Brabham went out with engine trouble while Surtees retired after running to the back of Bonnier who had slowed his Porsche at the site of Von Trips's accident. Moss went out with a broken wheel which left Dan Gurney second for Porsche and Bruce McLaren third for Cooper. Jack Lewis drove a marvelous race in his private Cooper to finish fourth ahead of Tony Brooks (BRM) and Roy Salvadori (Parnell Cooper). The awful accident meant that Phil Hill became the first American to win the Formula 1 World Championship but there was no celebrating at Monza on that Sunday.
POS | NO | DRIVER | ENTRANT | LAPS | TIME/RETIREMENT | QUAL POS |
1 | 2 | Phil Hill | Ferrari 156 | 43 | 2h03m13.000s | 4 |
2 | 46 | Dan Gurney | Porsche 718 | 43 | 2h03m44.200s | 12 |
3 | 12 | Bruce McLaren | Cooper-Climax T55 | 43 | 2h05m41.400s | 14 |
4 | 60 | Jack Lewis | Cooper-Climax T53 | 43 | 2h05m53.400s | 16 |
5 | 26 | Tony Brooks | BRM-Climax P48/57 | 43 | 2h05m53.500s | 13 |
6 | 40 | Roy Salvadori | Cooper-Climax T53 | 42 | 18 | |
7 | 74 | Carel Godin de Beaufort | Porsche 718 | 41 | 15 | |
8 | 62 | Lorenzo Bandini | Cooper-Maserati T53 | 41 | 21 | |
9 | 48 | Maurice Trintignant | Cooper-Maserati T51 | 41 | 22 | |
10 | 16 | Tim Parnell | Lotus-Climax 18 | 40 | 27 | |
11 | 20 | Henry Taylor | Lotus-Climax 18/21 | 39 | 23 | |
12 | 58 | Renato Pirocchi | Cooper-Maserati T51 | 38 | 29 | |
r | 28 | Stirling Moss | Lotus-Climax 21 | 36 | Wheel Bearing | 11 |
r | 6 | Richie Ginther | Ferrari 156 | 23 | Engine | 3 |
r | 72 | Gaetano Starraba | Lotus-Maserati 18 | 19 | Engine | 30 |
r | 44 | Jo Bonnier | Porsche 718 | 14 | Suspension | 8 |
r | 50 | Nino Vaccarella | De Tomaso-Conrero F1 | 13 | Engine | 20 |
r | 32 | Giancarlo Baghetti | Ferrari 156 | 13 | Engine | 6 |
r | 8 | Ricardo Rodriguez | Ferrari 156 | 13 | Fuel Pump | 2 |
r | 22 | Masten Gregory | Lotus-Climax 18/21 | 11 | Suspension | 17 |
r | 24 | Graham Hill | BRM-Climax P48/57 | 10 | Engine | 5 |
r | 10 | Jack Brabham | Cooper-Climax T58 | 8 | Overheating | 10 |
r | 14 | Brian Naylor | JBW-Climax (61) | 6 | Engine | 31 |
r | 30 | Jack Fairman | Cooper-Climax T45 | 5 | Engine | 26 |
r | 38 | Innes Ireland | Lotus-Climax 18/21 | 5 | Chassis | 9 |
r | 42 | John Surtees | Cooper-Climax T53 | 2 | Accident | 19 |
r | 56 | Wolfgang Seidel | Lotus-Climax 18 | 1 | Engine | 28 |
r | 54 | Roberto Bussinello | De Tomaso-Conrero F1 | 1 | Engine | 24 |
r | 52 | Roberto Lippi | De Tomaso-OSCA F1 | 1 | Engine | 32 |
r | 36 | Jim Clark | Lotus-Climax 21 | 1 | Accident | 7 |
r | 4 | Wolfgang von Trips | Ferrari 156 | 1 | Fatal Accident | 1 |
r | 18 | Gerry Ashmore | Lotus-Climax 18 | 0 | Accident | 25 |
nq | 68 | Andre Pilette | Emeryson-Climax (61) | 33 | ||
ns | 58 | Massimo Natili | Cooper-Maserati T51 | Car Raced By Pirocchi | 34 |